Birkenhead’s MP Frank Field today reveals the extent of the
strain being felt by Wirral’s A&E services:

- In December 2017, 2,369 patients – 21.6% of all
patients who arrived at A&E that month – waited longer than four hours
before being admitted, transferred or discharged
- This is a worse performance than both the
national average and the previous December in Wirral, in which 1,946 patients –
17.9% of the total – waited longer than four hours in A&E
- Last month’s total would have risen to 29.4% of
all patients, had it not been for the work of minor injuries units treating
people away from Arrowe Park
- In the three-month period from October to
December 2017, 5,179 patients – 16.1% of the total – waited longer than four
hours in A&E; another significant increase on the same three-month period
from the previous year, in which 4,304 patients – 13.9% of the total – waited
longer than four hours

In the light of these new data, obtained from the Department
of Health in response to his parliamentary question, Frank issues two rallying
calls:

- For Wirral’s health authorities to continue to
support existing minor injuries units which have proved cost effective, and to
provide new minor injuries units with the support they need to build on this
essential work, to ease more of the pressure on Arrowe Park
- For the Government to address the £10 billion
NHS funding shortfall that will open up in 2020, by initiating a major shift in
the National Insurance system so that it funds health and social care along
progressive lines

Frank says: ‘Our frontline NHS staff continue to perform
minor miracles in offering many of my constituents a first class service. Minor
injuries units, in particular, are again punching above their weight. But what
these data show is that with each year that passes without adequate funding and
a restructuring of services, staff are being asked to perform those minor
miracles with one arm tied behind their back. This cannot continue without more
and more patients falling through the cracks that are beginning to show, not
least in A&E.’